Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plain of dignity and discipline.
M.L. King Jr.; “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963.
In America today, the Federal Government has set aside this day to celebrate M.L. King Jr.’s birthday. Yet more than that (I personally think it should be called Civil Rights Day), we should be celebrating all those who pushed back against the suppression of the ideal found in the Preamble to the U.S. Declaration of Independence that “All men are created equal.”
In his speech, Dr. King mentions freedom a few times, as this study shows that the only true freedom for mankind comes from knowing the truth of Christ as Lord and Savior. Only that truth can truly set a man free.
So Jesus was saying to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word [continually obeying My teachings and living in accordance with them, then] you are truly My disciples. 32 And you will know the truth [regarding salvation], and the truth will set you free [from the penalty of sin].” (AMP)
STUDY
What does it mean that “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32)?
TRUE FREEDOM
1. Three mighty thoughts — knowledge, truth, freedom.
O. F. Gifford, Bible Hub
2. Men claim to be free born or to attain freedom at a great price; yet he who sins is a slave of sin.
(1) Political freedom is but the bark, intellectual freedom but the fibre, of the tree spiritual: freedom is the sap. Men contend for bark and fibre, Christ gives the sap. Sometimes we have political freedom, but formal, sapless, as dead as telegraph poles strung with the wires of politicians.
3. Circumstances cannot fetter freedom or confer it. Joseph was as free in the dungeon as on the throne. “Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.” The Israelites in the desert were a nation of slaves despite their liberty. It matters not where I place my watch, so I wind it, it is really free; if I interfere with the works, wherever it may be, it is in bondage. So of man — bind, chain, imprison; if the soul be in sympathy with God, sustained by truth, you have a free man; if the reverse, you have a slave. John, though in prison, was free; Herod, though on the throne, was a slave — Christ and Pilate. Freedom, like the kingdom of heaven, is within. The text teaches a threefold lesson — man may know; truth is: the knowledge of the truth brings freedom.
I. The word KNOW carries us back to the dawn of history.
1. Two possibilities are placed before man — life or knowledge. Full of life, he chooses knowledge at the risk of life.
2. The race is true to its head — exploration, geographical, scientific, philosophical.
3. Yet men were then setting up altars to the unknown God: men now to God unknowable. The great Teacher says: “Ye shall know.”
4. The promise implies that man can trust himself and the results of his research and experiences.
II. THE SUBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE IS TRUTH. Truth stands in contrast —
1. With a lie. Christ accuses His hearers of being children of the devil. Today as then men lie; wilfully misrepresent in business, political, and social life. Truth is consistency between what we
2. With veracity, think and say and what is. Veracity is consistency between what we say and think; but we may think wrongly.
3. Truth is reality as opposed to a lie and to appearance. Christ, as Son of God and Son of Man, sets forth certain realities regarding both, and the relation between the two. That God is, what God is, and what man is: alienation and possible reconciliation; regeneration by the Spirit; the results of separation from and reconciliation with God. These facts, relations, results, are truth, and may be known,
III. THE RESULTS OF SUCH KNOWLEDGE IS FREEDOM.
1. Freedom from the past, “Son, remember;” but the knowledge of God’s reconciliation blots out the sin-stained past as a cloud.
2. Freedom from fears for the future based upon the past.
IV. THE ONE CONDITION OF ALL THIS IS BELIEF IN CHRIST. Faith as a grain of mustard seed grows into knowledge, etc.
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31). Our Lord here describes one of the marks of a genuine disciple of His. Continuance in His word is not a condition of discipleship, rather is it the manifestation of it. It is this, among other things, which distinguishes a true disciple from one who is merely a professor. These words of Christ supply us with a sure test. It is not how a man begins, but how he continues and ends. It is this which distinguishes the stony ground hearer from the good ground hearer—see Matthew 13:20, 23, and contrast Luke 8:15. To His apostles Christ said “He that endureth to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 10:22). Not, we repeat, that enduring to the end is a condition of salvation, it is an evidence or proof that we have already passed from death unto life. So writes the apostle John of some who had apostatized from the faith: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us,” etc. (1 John 2:19).
“If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.” The word “indeed” signifies truly, really, genuinely so. By using this word Christ here intimated that those referred to in the previous verse, who are said to have “believed on him,” were not “genuine disciples.” The one who has been truly saved will not fall away and be lost; the one who does fall away and is lost, was never truly saved. To “continue” in Christ’s word is to “keep his word” (Rev. 3:8). It is to hold fast whatever Christ has said; it is to perseveringly follow out the faith we profess to its practical end.
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). “To know the truth is something more definite than to know what is true; it is to understand that revelation with regard to the salvation of men, through the mediation of the incarnate Son, which is so often in the New Testament called, by way of eminence, ‘the truth’,—the truth of truths,—the most important of all truths,—the truth of which He is full,—the truth that came by Him, as the law came by Moses,—the truth, the reality in opposition to the shadows, the emblems, of the introductory economy,—what Paul termed, ‘the word of the truth of the Gospel’, Colossians 1:5” (Dr. John Brown).
The truth shall make you free.” Note the striking connection between these three things: (1) “continue in my word,” v. 31; (2) “ye shall know the truth,” verse 32; (3) “the truth shall make you free,” verse 32. This order cannot be changed. The truth gives spiritual liberty; it frees from the blinding power of Satan (2 Cor. 4:4). It delivers from the darkness of spiritual death (Eph. 4:18). It emancipates from the prison-house of sin (Isa. 61:1).
Arthur Walkington Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1923–1945), 446–447.
DEEP STUDY
ADDITIONAL – M.L. KING Jr. – RESOURCES
POP QUIZ – How much do you know about Martin Luther King Jr.?
How much do you know about Martin Luther King Jr.?
Beyond The Dream: 7 Lesser Known Facts About Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and those who inspired non-violent resistance – American Minute with Bill Federer
Where Are You, Martin Luther King?
Alveda King: King’s Dream for 2024
A Nation Dr. King Wouldn’t Recognize
Martin Luther King Jr.: More Relevant Today than Ever
The Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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